Something very strange occurred to me as I was leaving the store. I realized that I had just gone into the store, picked up a few items, paid for them and didn’t speak a single word to anyone. With automated checkout lines, this is now possible. Human interaction is slowly becoming a thing of the past. No one told me what kind of day to have or asked me if I had found everything okay. I was not greeted with a smile, I didn’t have a chance to flirt with the cashier, the entire transaction was handled by a machine.
Now, I have gotten used to dealing with computers over the phone. In fact, I’m shocked when I call a business and an actual person answers. The norm Today seems to be pressing one for English and go from there with menu options. It goes both ways, I even have computers calling me several times a week to let me know that my bills are overdue or there is a school event coming up. The biggest problem with this is that I don’t always feel like I fall into one of the four available menu options.
I understand the reasoning behind this change. The companies are trying to save money on payroll to keep the price of their products down. But is that reasoning or an excuse? Sure, they’re cutting back on the minimum wage jobs like cashiers and public relations staff. But they are spending more money on the high paying technical support jobs. So, I fail to see any real savings.
The bigger loss here isn’t the money, It’s what this change is doing to our culture. We are losing sight of how important simple human interaction is. Business should be conducted by people who can smile and shake hands and earn your trust. People who don’t give you menu options but can discuss nearly any problem with you. And if this is what’s happening to commerce, what’s next? Are we headed for a day when our children are cared for by machines to save money on daycare? At some point will we end up dating machines? It’s not that convoluted when you consider that most people would rather send a text message than make a phone call. The message that sends is, “I’m thinking of you but don’t want to hear your voice”. And technology allows us to interact with people in a very impersonal way.
Photo courtesy monkeybusiness images @ iStockphoto
I hate when people with two giant carts full of everything they need for a Thanksgiving dinner use the self-checkout. What are they trying to prove? I bet they’re stealing stuff.
[...] me just tell you, if they’d had those automated check-outs that Mike was lamenting in Georgia in 1990, I’d have been dancing with joy. There are some things that just [...]